“My dear brothers and sisters, for many centuries we have hidden in the shadows and practiced our crafts in obscurity! For many centuries the people of this world have prosecuted all of us out of fear, paranoia and ignorance as well as the actions of the few bad seeds along with the ideas that what we are doing is against God! But now things are about to change! Our time to leave behind the shadow and go into the light has come! The era for the society to accept us has arrived!

However, much work needs to be done, Lelei La Lena, Rory Mercury, Tuka and Yao as well as other magical beings of Uros must know that we are counting on them for the day we reveal ourselves to the world. We are counting on them to make sure the witch hunt never happens again. I entrust some of yours to deliver the Book of Shadow to Alnus Base so it can reach Lelei, let her know that we are always real! ” - Unknown email message sent by an unknown person to a group of people

***

--- Row Stream, Valtris Harbor, middle of the night --

April 3rd, 2026

Elder Ellisar Heivyre sees the target of his war party, the NATO bridge at Valtris.

From what he understands, Valtris held out against NATO for a few days early in the war, even inflicting casualties against them(1).

While they were enemies then, he can see that Valtris has embraced the Other Worlders. In his long life, he is always surprised how someone can be enemies today and allies tomorrow.

From the Oprichnina intelligence branch, the Frumentarii Corps informed him that this bridge is the primary supply route to the Greater Elies Region. Cutting this supply route, even temporary, would be a massive setback.

General Upson of the Frumentarii wanted this bridge taken out, and he agreed to take up this assignment.

He is one of fifteen elders from the Kingdom of Faeven of the Moon Elves, located in the Walrian Forest far to the northeast. While one of the few Independent Kingdoms on Falmart, they still maintain some obedience to the Empire. The Empire has aided them in the wars against the Volralden to the west and Famulis domain to the south.

Usually, his people would stay out of Imperial affairs; however, the Other Worlders have proven to be a massive threat. While he didn't believe in the Imperial declaration about how evil the Other Worlders are at the Knappnai Summit, judging by how hypocritical the Empire is toward demi-human treatment and their constant conquests and slave-driving (2). He did see how much of their way of life can change. More importantly, the balance of power if NATO wins the war. If NATO defeats the Empire and becomes the dominant power, no one could challenge them ever again.

His people kingdom, the last of the Elves' Kingdoms from the days the Elves ruled these lands, will not risk their future on these Other Worlders. Emperor Zorzal made one comment that his King took an interest in, Falmart should be ruled by the people of Falmart, not by outsiders.

He sees his dozen elves all in the water, all holding onto some logs acting as a raft as they approach the bridge. He did plan on using canoes to speed up their approach, but the Frumentarii agent in Valtris recommended against it.

The agent said NATO has devices that can detect such objects on the surface. He also warned him that the Other Worlders could see at night and people's body heat like a snake and dragon.

That is why he decided to use the Row Stream. Assuming these Other Worlders devices can see people's body heat, then he isn't worried. He had his group create armor made out of reptilian skin. They are great for moving through the water and hiding their body heat. This and how cold the water is, he knows the chances of being detected is slim.

"A boat(3)," an elf whispered.

He looks and sees one of the metal patrol boats coming.

He did not have to give any orders as everyone knew what to do. They duck into the water to hide. This is not the first time, and he assumes they are just checking out the logs.

He sees the bright searchlight shine on their location. While underwater, he can hear the boat engines as it passes by.

As he expected, the boat leaves. He comes back up to the waterline and glances around to make sure they were not spotted.

"These people rely on their technology too much," Oncith Faegeiros says.

He glances at Oncith, how longtime friend. He agrees with his friend. Two days ago, he witnessed one of those boats spotting some mermaids with their thermal devices. He thought they spotted his group at first.

Once the area is clear, they move to the bridge.

This is the final night they went to the bridge. While the bridge is made out of a stronger metal, it still has the same weakness, its joints. For a week, they were weakening the joints of the bridge with ice spirit magic. The intention is to rust out the joints to compromise them for the final stage of the plan.

Tonight, that bridge will fall.

Once they get under the bridge, they get into positions.

The Frumentarii agent said a large convoy is passing through today to support the NATO siege on Thaluilas. While this might not stop the siege, the hope is that it delays NATO offensive until the Ticaret Army arrives.

"Oncith," he says. "Let's get everyone ready."

"I hope this works," Oncith says. "We don't have enough amulets to do this again."

"Assuming the Dwarves told us the truth," he comments. "But the Dwarves are experts in metallurgy, so we have to hope they are right."

"I saw the Other Worlders armored wagons," Oncith replies. "I don't think the Dwarves can call themselves top experts in metallurgy anymore since the metallurgy of NATO is far superior, judging how they can make the entire wagons made of metals run faster than any horses."

He looks at his friend and smirks. It is common for people to think the Common races and the Dark Races hate each other. However, there are many disagreements between them. Elves never had good relations with Dwarves as Elves often see the Dwarves as ugly and unattractive. They only talk to each other when they face a common enemy. "Good."

They go quiet as they hear some guards above them, patrolling the bridge. Once they are passed, he looks at Oncith. "We need to hurry."

Just like they have been doing for the past week, they head to their assigned joints. With a combination of potent ice magic and magic-boosting amulets provided by Rondel's best alchemists, they have been weakening the joints of the bridge for a whole week by freezing them to the top level to make the joints become brittle. They use specially crafted hammers to slowly damage the fragile joints until the bridge collapses from weakened joints.

This operation has proven harder than he expected. Much work went into this plan, requiring his best raiders with the best upper-body strength from his kingdom. Not getting caught has been hard, requiring much needed advance planning.

He watches as his warrior's work, finishing the final stage.

“This job is degrading,” Oncith comments. “We are elves, we don’t do this type of work.”

“While I agree we are the only ones who can do it,” he comments. “Anyone else would have been caught by now.”

He sees another one of his warriors come to him. "What is it?"

"Two guards coming," Ilyana Arawenys says. “Romanians I think.”

Ilyana, being his only female elf on this mission, assigned her to keep a lookout. Yesterday she had to put a guard to sleep for fear of him discovering their appearance.

He turns to everyone and singles everyone to hide behind their cloaks.

He gets on his knees and moves his cloak around him. They are special elven cloaks his people created. They make them look like objects in the surrounding area like stumps and boulders.

However, they are not foolproof. If someone looks more closely and understands the environment around them, they can tell something is off. That is why he is doing this mission at night, to help decrease the chance of discovery.

Two Romanian soldiers walk down and walk to the rover.

He cannot understand them, but they seem to just be checking things out. He can see the flashlights like from the boat but smaller.

He looks over and sees one of the soldiers pissing into the rover. They are talking about something, probably home.

He watches as one of the enemy soldiers flashes his light at him. He grabs his knife, just in case. Usually soldiers come down here just for a quick patrol and then go back up to the city where it is warm.

He then sees they walk back up

Once he is happy the coast is clear he gets everyone back to work.

“That was close,” Ilyana comments. “I don’t know how long we can do this before getting caught.”

“The only reason is because the war is hundreds of leagues from here,” he replies. “I doubt the city has been attacked since it first fell(4). They are not expecting us.”

He watches as everyone gets back to work.

For the next hour they had two more patrols come by, either on the bridge or the pier. He knows he is at a disadvantage if they are spotted.

Ilyana slides back down. “Elder, the convoy is coming.”

He looks to his warriors and signals them to begin.

Soon enough, he hears the rumbling of their vehicles.

"How do people sleep here with those things," Oncith asks.

"No idea," Ilyana replies. "These people are so unnatural."

"Stop the conversation," he orders. "Here, they come."

He can hear soldiers walking as they begin crossing the bridge. Then he hears the loud rambling of their vehicles starting to travel.

He signals to begin attacking the joints all along the bridge.

He knows the hammering noise will draw attention. They either destroy the bridge or flee before they are being detected.

He hears their vehicles passing through. "Hurry. We need their combined weight for this to work, or this was pointless."

"What is that sound?"

He looks up at one of the nearby piers. He sees two soldiers walking close.

He sees them shining their light torch at them. He can see that they are out of time. "Ilyana, take the one on the left."

Ilyana aimed her bow and fired, killing the soldier. He fires an arrow, killing the soldier on the right. However, this soldier leans forward and falls into the water.

"Alarm!" A soldier yells as he fires his rifle in the air to alert the nearby patrol.

He looks to Oncith. "Are you almost done?" He says as more armored vehicles cross the bridge.

"Almost there," Oncith replies.

He aims his bow again and gets ready to fire another arrow. "Then, we fight."

As he and Ilyana prepare to fight, he hears rumbling above him, this time coming from the bridge itself.

He turns around and sees one of the points break apart. Then another as the bridge slowly starts to collapse.

"There we go," Oncith says.

He hears a few of the vehicles above him starting to slide. Soldiers are yelling and screaming as they try to take control of the situation.

"Everyone in the water," Oncith orders sternly.

The plan is that after they destroy the bridge, they flee into the water and swing away from the city. There, mermaids will help them get away from Valtris.

He watches as his people dive into the water. Suddenly bullets start hitting their position. He and Ilyana cover them as they descend.

He hears more joints break and sees the bridge starting to collapse. The vehicles desperately try to get off the bridge, which only further contributes to the bridge's collapse.

After Ilyana, he dives into the water. Once in, he sees some streaks going through the water. He assumes they are the enemy bullets.

He can hear the splashing from the vehicles and the bridge hitting the river.

He swims away to get some distance.

Once he needs air, he pokes his head above the surface and breaks. He sees a few of his other elves.

"Look, sir," Oncith says.

He looks back at the bridge.

The bridge is in the water, and he can see three vehicles sinking in the river. He can hear some screams as some of the soldiers fell into the river too.

The Row River is very deep and wide, and he knows there is no way they will save the people inside those vehicles.

"I see that boat coming again," an elf says.

He looks back. "We need to leave now."

***

--- Dumas Mountains, FOB Albany ---

April 5th, 2026

Jessica Moore looks up past the trees and sees two fighter jets fly by. "They are close."

"They are Hellenic Air Force(5) F-16s," Corporal Miles replies. "They are providing close air support to Charlie company."

"If you are scared, you can go back," Private Oskar says.

She looks at the 101st Airborne soldiers. "And miss out on the fun with you boys?"

"If you consider this fun, then you're just nuts. Plain and simple," Miles says.

She then sees this purple male fairy fly to her. "Why don't you have a weapon?"

She stops walking, shocked to see a fairy and just gapes absentmindedly at the fairy.

"She is a war correspondent," Oskar answers.

"What is that?" the fairy asks.

"Someone who will twist our actions for their fifteen minutes of fame," Oskar replies.

The fairy looks at her. "Is that true?"

She smirks, understanding their concern. Journalists are usually seen as vultures, only caring about themselves or their world view. Most take events or people's actions and twists them to fit their narrative—the narrative before truth.

That is one reason why she became an independent journalist. While her sister Alicia wanted to serve through the military, she wanted to help by making the truth out there and not bias.

"For most journalists, yes, but not me," she replies. "I am independent. While I report most of my work to SCNR, my actions are my own."

She has seen fairies before, but they usually are doing administrative tasks. She had never seen one on the front lines before. "I like to know what your stories are? You are brave to be out here."

She can see the fairy get nervous, which she finds cute.

"We found him five months ago," Mike says. "He was locked up in the city of Havcristen(6)."

"Yup," the fairy says. "I am called Tillie."

"Nice to meet you, Tillie," she says. "What do you do? I don't normally see fairies on the frontlines."

"We fairies are not fighters like most common races," Tillie says. "But I act like a scout for them and help them with locals. People warm up when they see me."

She looks at Miles and sees the standard military gear. She can see how a soldier is dressed and can scare people of this world. She can see the value of having a fairy with them to help ease public relations.

Staff Sergeant Colbert walls up. "Stop playing around and stay sharp. Don't let them ambush you."

She sees the soldiers get back into formation. "I can handle myself as a Staff Sergeant."

Colbert looks at her as they walk. "I have to admit I am surprised you are tagging along. After the Parker Incident, all your correspondents stay at the bases and invent fake news."

She heard of that incident. Some monsters killed some journalists. Since then, most journalists stay at the bases or take safe assignments.

"I am not a pussy," she says. "I haven't gotten this far for sitting on my ass."

"I noticed," Colbert says. "None of us question your bravery."

"And yet I get the cold shoulder," she states.

Colbert was hesitant to respond. "It's clear that you are using us to get somewhere. I can be wrong."

There is some truth to what Colbert said. His unit is part of Colonel Anderson's command, and Andersen is a step to her final destination to her final goal, an interview of Lieutenant Colonel Sharpe.

She has heard stories of Sharpe. The more she researched, the more attractive he seemed. He has been on the pulse on this war since the beginning, and the natives he keeps around, Rory, Lelei, Tuka, and she heard about this other elf who joined recently.

Even though her sister is in the same unit, Alicia has protected him from her, even though she remembers Alicia hating him early on in the war.

As they march through the forest, she hears weapons fire in the distance.

"Looks like they found a hole," Miles says.

"This is Yankee-Actual to all platoons," Captain Pierce says over NETT. "Our objective is the direction in front of us. All units engage."

She sees all the soldiers quicken their pace. She hears a machine approaching behind her, so she gets out of the way.

She watches a large man- sized four-legged unmanned ground vehicle walk past her. The head is composed of sensors, meaning that its operator was likely back at Alnus. On top of it is a Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun. These soldiers call it the M18 Bigdog Infantry Support Vehicle.

The UGV is the US Army second Mule attempt. It looks like the mule from the movie Spectral(7). Besides using wheels or tracks like most UGV's, this one has four legs so it can move through rough terrain.

While she has heard of such a machine, she is impressed by this machine. The reason why the DARPA Mule failed was that it was too loud for combat; this one is much quieter.

She grabs her camera and rushes up behind them. As she rushes, she hears more skirmishes happening around her.

She sees a green explosion of a wildfire pot, burning a tree. The twelve soldiers form up and start engaging the enemy.

As the Airborne engages the enemy. However, she sees some large javelins start coming forward. She sees one of those javelins punch through a tree, which shocks her.

Before she came to this world, she did some basic research on enemy weapons. Ballista weapons could only fire one javelin at a time. However, the Polybolos, also called repeating ballista, can fire multiple harpoons repeatedly.

Colbert grabs her and forces her on the ground. "Get down!"

"Those ancient Javelins cannot have that kind of penetration?" she yells. "How is it possible?" After saying that, she moves her camera.

"Those are not normal javelins. The javelin's heads are made out of a special steel alloy called Parabecel made by the dwarves. DARPA inspection shows that these steel alloys are created by mixing iron ore with Wyvern blood during the forging process to remove quite an impurity from the iron ore, giving them 40% of the toughness of modern steel. They are strong enough to punch through the soft spots of a Stryker. If you are hit by one, you are pretty much dead." Colbert says.

"Holy shit," she says, seeing how dangerous it is. While she has been on Falmart for a while now, she hasn't been in many battles, never this close. She assumed because the enemy used bows and arrows, they would be easy pickings.

Colbert gets his team in order. "Oskar, cover this point."

Colbert states. "The Empire also upgraded their crossbows to become repeater crossbows. Five around per magazine, maybe."

"Arrows!" Miles yells.

A dozen arrows hit all around them. She sees one of the arrows hit a soldier's body armor. He is okay, thanks to the ceramic plate in the body armor.

She gets up and zooms in with her camera. She sees a sizable Imperial formation guarding a cave entrance. They are all in a trench system around it, and she sees them reloading a new magazine into the polybolos.

She hears someone yelling to her right, and she looks, swerving the camera along with.

She sees someone from another squad within the same platoon. One of those javelins was going through the man’s body. One side of his body is fairly destroyed before he dies from the sheer amount of blood loss.

She then looks to her left and sees that Bigdog UGV gets into position. The .50 Cal on top of it begins firing, engaging the polybolos.

"Why are the Empire not charging?" she asks Miles. "Don't they charge in large formations?"

"They stop doing banzai charges after taking so many casualties during the early stage of the war," Miles replies as he reloads. "They are trying to adapt to our ways, staying back and using their ranged weapons, just like us. Although their accuracy is egregious, both an arrow and a bullet have the capability to kill"

“But you guys have body armor,” she asks confused. “They are just arrows.”

“We are not wearing Iron Man suits,” Osker says. “Body armor doesn't cover the face or the legs. While it isn’t that bad compared to a bullet, trust me, you don't want to get hit by an arrow. It can fuck you up, bad.”

She finds that attractive how the enemy had adopted since the beginning of the war, much like the primitive tribes in Africa when they fought against the British Empire back in the colonial era ago on Earth.

It reminds her of when the 1889 Anglo-Zulu War where the British first invasion of the Zulu Kingdom was defeated at the Battle of Isandlwana. The Zulu weapons were more primitive than the British and yet beat back the British Empire’s first invasion. Even so, they still lost the war when a second invasion appeared.

And of course, the failed Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1895. Ethiopians crushed the Italians because they had far superior numbers.

While the odds are low for NATO to lose this war, there are historical examples of setbacks of less technologically advanced forces defeating a superior one.

She watches as the battle continues. The .50 Cal provides much-needed suppression support.

The Bigdog begins moving up as it fires. About five arrows hit the UGV and all bounce off or get stuck in a joint, however doing no damage because it is a machine.

The Bigdog gets to the forest trench and stops. Its weapon aims for the larger group of enemies and tears them apart.

She sees Colbert leading his men as they charge at the enemy position. They clear out the trenches, and the remaining Imperials rush inside the tunnel.

She regroups with them. She sees a soldier toss a smaller version of the Bigdog. Made by Boston Dynamics, the Army asked for a military version of their Spot UGV, the M14 Spotdog.

"What are you doing?" she asks.

"Dwarves tunnels," Oskar replies. "They like to boobytrap their tunnels."

"All right, Eagles," Colbert says. "Let's go. Miles, you are first. Everyone else follows up."

She watches them enter the tunnel. She takes a deep breath as she follows them. She doesn't have to, and deep down inside, she doesn't, but she wants to prove she is worthy.

The mission is for units to move into the tunnel network and clear them out. The brass wants to capture as many entrances as possible and use them to strike the Dwarven tunnels and chambers directly. Capture anything of value, use them to take the fight to the enemy heart, and mark locations for air strikes. If they cannot take a network the Air Forces will destroy them.

The reason why NATO just does not use just bunker-bomb all these tunnel networks, chambers, and underground fortresses is because it would require thousands of bunker-busters throughout all the Dumas Mountain Range. There are just not enough bombs to meet the demand and the brass does not want to waste a bomb on a simple tunnel network when their more important targets.

As they go inside the tunnel, it is dark. She can see torchlight deeper in the cave; however, she has to use the night vision on her camera to see.

"Where are they?" she asks.

"Shut up," Oskar says.

"What?" she asks, shocked that he told her to shut up.

"You are giving up our position," Oskar states.

She realizes her error. "Sorry." She then sees two soldiers glare at her.

The tunnel goes down deeper down into the tunnel network. The soldiers start going down, following the Spot UGV.

The military said that the Empire entrenched themselves into the Dumas Mountain Range to prevent NATO from striking Sadera. She did not think much about it, thinking it would be like during the Vietnam War in which US soldiers had to do tunnel rats. However, unlike the cramped, narrow and separated tunnel network used by the Vietcong, the Imperial tunnels are more spacious and interconnected, making it clear that the Imperial force is not experienced in digging tunnels to deal with modern warfare, as the saying goes, they “put all eggs into one basket.”. Furthermore, the tunnel network also lacks tunnel holes for them to use ranged weapons to ambush. In general, the Imperial tunnel network is like the tunnel network used by Middle East terrorists with the downside of lacking tunnel holes or too interconnected.

The Spot stops and turns to this other tunnel. It starts blinking red.

"What does that mean?" she whispers.

"Contact," Oskar says.

"Form up," Colbert orders.

Two Airborne soldiers look down that path and fire down it. Then four more soldiers rush past them down the main track.

She follows and looks down the side path. She sees a few dead Imperial soldiers lying there with their heads splattered thanks to shotgun blasts. But then she sees people moving down the hallway.

The two soldiers begin going down and fire.

“Reporter,” Colbert says. “You are with us.”

She quickly follows as more soldiers go down that path.

She keeps going, sweat from the heat.

The soldiers in front of her stop and she records another short battle. The soldier on point fires a shotgun, throwing the soldier back from the impact

“Advance,” Colbert orders.

They advance deeper into the tunnel network. She can hear skirmishes everywhere from other platoons.

Everyone stops as they see a large door in front of them. Spot again flashes red.

“Looks like your little puppy senses something,” Oskar whispers.

“Tillie,” Colbert says. “Go report to the LT.”

She sees the fairy fly away. The soldiers set up a breach charge quickly.

The door explodes and a soldier tosses a flash bang.

They then storm the room. She follows them and sees them firing into the room.

She takes cover in the back, recording everything. She sees five human soldiers and an Elf. To her surprise, she sees an Orc with them. They charge at them, but get gunned down, holes riddling their bodies.

That is when she notices a wall open. She sees Dwarves pour out of the new hole. “There, they are the fucking midgets! Colbert!”

“Right flank!” Colbert yells.

A Dwarf sprints close and slams his hammer into Oskar’s temple. He then raises his hammer, but then gets blasted apart by a shotgun.

Seeing everyone engaging the new threat she rushes over and grabs Oskar and tries pulling him back.

She checks him out and notices that he is dead from extreme blunt trauma. She looks up and sees that the Dwarves are pretty close to the soldiers.

Colbert gives the order to fall back and the soldiers start coming back through the tunnel. Miles and another soldier grab Oskar's body and carry him. Another soldier helps another wounded soldier who was hit by a Dwarf.

She follows them falling back from the cave.

---

Jessica is sitting on a log. She pours her canteen over her head to clean off the sweat and dirt.

She then looks up and sees a B-2 Lance bomber fly over, dropping a Bunker-Buster on the tunnel network they were attacking, burying all the Dwarves and the remaining Imperial force six-feet under.

The squad mission was to clear out the tunnel system. It was part of a larger battalion scale operation to clear out this valley. While Charlie Company had to pull out of their cave networks however Alpha Company successfully completed all their objectives with light casualties.

Colbert walks over. “You ok?”

“Yeah,” she replies.

“Thank you for grabbing Oskar's body,” Colbert says.

“You're welcome,” she replies. “I didn’t know what else to do. It was just an impulse.”

Colbert looks at her for a moment. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

She thinks for a moment, thinking back at Oskar’s skull getting rammed inwards by the Dwarf, dying from a hammer in the blink of an eye. “I have seen dead bodies before, but I’ve never seen someone die like that before. I didn’t realize how risky it was.”

“Yup,” Colbert says. “It definitely isn’t your father's war.”

“Oh, big sis! I wish I were you right now! You saw more bloody things than me!” Jessica laments.

“Your sister is Private First-Class Alicia from the Rangers, Vanguard-7 correct?” Colbert says. “How do you feel after seeing your sister again after a whole year?”

“She is a Specialist now.”

She thinks back to time with Alicia. She misses Alicia so much. Since her sister joined the Army, she has not been able to spend a lot of time with her.

Alicia always defended her from bullies back in school. She remembered her choking that boorish jock, Samson, who would not leave her alone. She defended her from her cheerleader captain who hated that she was on the team. The captain, Connie, threatened to release naked pictures of her unless she quit the Cheerleaders and leave the football captain alone so she could date him. She always tried to be tough, but, in the end, she always needed her sister help.

“She is the same as always,” she says. “This world fits her greatly. I was surprised by the company that she keeps around her.”

“Some sister she is,” Colbert says. “Sounds like me and my little brother. So, you are doing this to prove to your sister?”

“Partly,” she says as she wipes the tears. “Sorry about that. The stress got to me.”

“Right,” Colbert says. “You want to get to Vanguard-7. That story isn’t worth getting yourself killed. You have balls, Jessica, being out here and going into a cave like that. Each time we go down, you never know what will happen. Most reporters choose to report behind the lines where it's safe.”

“I know,” she replies. “But if I do that then I never would get to see the best. No offense. There are a lot of stories happening and I want to capture them. If my sister is in the forefront of these adventures and stories, I want to be there and capture them and engrave them into history forever.”

“Alright,” Colbert says. “We have another mission in two days. We will be attacking a Imperialist and Ticaret fortress. We need to clear it up so our armored forces can advance up the goat path.”